Since 1990's "The Hunt for Red October," Tom Clancy has been a frequent pick for adaptation on film and television. The late author's signature brand of technical espionage and cat-and-mouse geopolitics lent itself naturally to the big screen, and the success of "Red October" spawned a whole Clancy franchise.

As is often the case, though, the quality of these adaptations has wavered over the years, with some absolute highs and equally notable lows. This is especially true of the movies and series centering Jack Ryan, Clancy's frequent protagonist. The vast majority of Clancy screen adaptations have involved Jack Ryan, with five different actors playing him in major projects since Alec Baldwin first donned the CIA analyst's mantle in 1990. But how do these different versions stack up against each other? And which is definitively the best?

To answer those questions, we go to the fans. Every Jack Ryan series and movie to this point has over 100,000 user ratings on IMDb, giving us a pretty clear idea of how audiences feel about each version. "The Hunt for Red October" is near the top, as you might expect, but the number one spot actually goes to the only Jack Ryan TV show, rather than one of the movies. At the time of this writing, "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" -- the Prime Video series starring John Krasinski as the eponymous character -- holds an 8.0 across 182,000 user ratings, granting it the gold medal. Given the positive reception to the show and its impressive production design, that's not too surprising. But how do the movies stack up?